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Gore Maintaining Momentum, Post-Labor Day Polling Shows

Polls taken since Labor Day show Al Gore keeping the momentum he gained after his party's convention and continuing to hold an advantage over George W. Bush on issues like health care, prescription drugs and the environment.

In addition, Mr. Gore has blunted the character issue, now attaining parity with Mr. Bush on general likeability, something that had eluded him since the campaign began.

Mr. Gore is ahead of Mr. Bush in six polls taken since Labor Day, but his advantage is almost always within any given poll's margin of sampling error. The race at this point is best characterized as a dead heat, with Mr. Gore holding a slight advantage overall and a larger advantage on the issues.

When the polls are averaged, Mr. Gore is at 47 percent and Mr. Bush is at 42 percent.

The most recent poll is a tracking poll by Gallup for CNN and USA Today. In that poll, taken Sept. 16-18 with 697 likely voters, Mr. Gore leads Mr. Bush 48 percent to 44 percent with Ralph Nader preferred by 2 percent of the voters and Pat Buchanan by less than 1 percent.

A Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates shows one of the widest margins. It was taken Sept. 14-15 with 853 registered voters and has Mr. Gore at 50 percent with Mr. Bush at 38 percent. Mr. Nader was supported by 3 percent of the voters in that poll and Mr. Buchanan by 2 percent.

An earlier poll by The New York Times and CBS News has Mr. Gore at 42 percent and Mr. Bush at 39 percent. The other candidates were in low single digits. That poll of 843 registered voters was taken Sept. 9-11. Similarly, NBC News and the Wall Street Journal had Mr. Gore at 45 percent and Mr. Bush at 42 percent with the 2,017 registered voters it polled Sept. 7-10.

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A Harris poll of 781 likely voters, taken over a longer period, Sept. 8-17, had Mr. Gore 8 percentage points ahead of Mr. Bush, at 49 percent to 41 percent. And one of the first polls after Labor Day, one by ABC news and the Washington Post conducted Sept. 4-6 with 1,065 registered voters, had Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush tied at 45 percent each.

The margin of sampling error for the nationwide telephone polls is plus or minus four percentage points for The CNN/USA Today, Newsweek and Times/CBS polls. It is three percentage points for the Harris and ABC/Washington Post polls and two percentage points for the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

Its still early in the fall phase of the campaign. In such a tight race, the dynamics are easily changed. About a quarter of voters say they still might change their minds before election day.

The next scheduled big event which may have an impact on the race in a dramatic way is the presidential debate scheduled for Oct. 3. The public is eager to see the debates. In the Times/CBS Poll, 88 percent of the voters said they wanted to see the candidates debate.

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A version of this article appears in print on September 20, 2000 of the National edition with the headline: Gore Maintaining Momentum, Post-Labor Day Polling Shows. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe